I decided to re-read the book before watching the movie, which might be considered a mistake by some people. I know people who would have said I should have skipped one or the other of my experiences, but I had my reasons. I wanted to be able to compare the two products, movie and book and see what the differences were. My thoughts can be condensed, and then expanded upon. Jurassic Park: The Book is kind of a dumb diatribe against science, written by a profoundly stupid man. Jurassic Park: The Movie is a fun movie with a few weak spots. I’ll expand on those two statements, but that’s the gist of my feelings.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Movie Review: Jurassic Park
I decided to re-read the book before watching the movie, which might be considered a mistake by some people. I know people who would have said I should have skipped one or the other of my experiences, but I had my reasons. I wanted to be able to compare the two products, movie and book and see what the differences were. My thoughts can be condensed, and then expanded upon. Jurassic Park: The Book is kind of a dumb diatribe against science, written by a profoundly stupid man. Jurassic Park: The Movie is a fun movie with a few weak spots. I’ll expand on those two statements, but that’s the gist of my feelings.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Movie review: Seven Swords
Seven Swords (2005 Mandarin Films & Eng Wah Dir. Tsui Hark)
This is a movie that should have been awesome, but fell short of that lofty goal. The reasons it should have been awesome are easy to see just from the people involved. Tsui Hark reinvigorated the Wuxia genre in the 90s, Donnie Yen is one of the biggest stars in HK cinema, the other actors are hardly unknowns, and it’s based on one of those books that I’m told is a favorite in Chinese culture. Of course, that’s maybe where things start to go wrong. The movie bears little resemblance to the book in question. Much of the story telling is put on the shoulders of characters that weren’t written to hold such weight, and the action is underwhelming. However, all that said, there are things to like in this movie as we’ll see. This isn’t a movie without merit, and some might look beyond the weaknesses and really fall in love with this thing.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Movie Review: Bandidas
Bandidas (2006 Dir. Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg)
This is not a bad movie, it’s just not a very good one. That’s sort of sad, because there are the makings of a great movie here and you can see glimmers of that great movie from time to time. A few small problems snowball into huge problems for the movie, but not to an extent that it actually becomes bad. This is a watchable film, but how much enjoyment you might get is greatly dependent on your personal feelings. I liked parts of the movie, but the movie as a whole product never quite comes together for me. Let’s break down the movie and see what works and what doesn’t.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Movie Review: Mean Guns
Movie Review: Mean Guns
Mean Guns (1997/ Dir. Albert Pyun)
We haven’t talked about a good old fashioned bad movie in a while, and this is close to as bad as they come while still being enjoyable. Oh yes, this movie is enjoyable, but it’s terrible. You don’t watch it for the fine performances or the sparkling dialogue, you watch it because you’re fascinated that this sort of thing got made despite the fact that clearly no one much cared about the end product. It’s also interesting to see how far some people have fallen. This was shown as an HBO original movie, and it’s not even a very good one, but it has some names that people would recognize like Ice T and Christopher Lambert. They’re okay in this movie, but they cover the range of performances for actors who are just picking up a paycheck. Ice is chewing the scenery and Lambert is half asleep. Still, the movie is fun, but for all the wrong reasons.
Mean Guns (1997/ Dir. Albert Pyun)
We haven’t talked about a good old fashioned bad movie in a while, and this is close to as bad as they come while still being enjoyable. Oh yes, this movie is enjoyable, but it’s terrible. You don’t watch it for the fine performances or the sparkling dialogue, you watch it because you’re fascinated that this sort of thing got made despite the fact that clearly no one much cared about the end product. It’s also interesting to see how far some people have fallen. This was shown as an HBO original movie, and it’s not even a very good one, but it has some names that people would recognize like Ice T and Christopher Lambert. They’re okay in this movie, but they cover the range of performances for actors who are just picking up a paycheck. Ice is chewing the scenery and Lambert is half asleep. Still, the movie is fun, but for all the wrong reasons.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Movie Review: New Jack City
New Jack City (1991/Warner Bros./Dir. Mario Van Peebles)
Made in the early nineties, when the crack epidemic was still a thing the media talked about on occasion, this is the story of one inner city drug lord’s rise and fall. So how does this early 90s gangster movie hold up when trying to watch it today? Surprisingly well actually. While some might want to compare this movie to gangster epics like Scarface, The Godfather or Goodfellas, I think there are a few points that separate them. For one thing, this is way shorter, it clocks in at just under two hours while the other films I mentioned hover around three. For another, there is a completely different flavor to this film and for a third… well, let’s talk about the movie, shall we?
Monday, February 14, 2011
Short Film Fest
Today I want to do something a little different. Today I want to talk about some short films that I really like.
Me and the Big Guy
What happens when Big Brother takes over and some idiot loves the idea? That’s sort of the question posed by this short movie. Citizen 43275-B talks to his view screen constantly, babbling the most inane garbage until Big Brother finally has enough and starts talking back. That’s not even the best part, the best part is the last few seconds of the film. I won’t spoil it, but the movie gets better as it goes along until the final punch line.
The Second Comeback
What starts as a comment on how the message of Jesus gets lost through all the marketing and BS gets turned into a pretty hilarious comedy. It’s only about ten minutes long, so there isn’t time for the one joke to wear thin. Some of the jokes are a little too obvious, but as the whole thing is so short it’s eminently forgivable. You can watch this on youtube, it’ll take you a couple of minutes and you probably won’t regret it.
Battle of the Sexes
What really happens in women’s bathrooms? Well, this movie tries to answer that question in humorous fashion. Yes, most the shorts are comedy, but shorts are easier to do as comedies. Anyway, a woman goes into the bathroom and gets a report on a man, deciding on whether or not to continue the date with him. Yeah, similar shorts have been done before, but this one is really fun.
Well, that’s if for now. I know this was short, but if you watched all the movies it should have taken about half an hour, and that’s not a bad slice of entertainment. Maybe later I’ll get you some more shorts to enjoy. For now though, this is all I’d planned on.
Me and the Big Guy
What happens when Big Brother takes over and some idiot loves the idea? That’s sort of the question posed by this short movie. Citizen 43275-B talks to his view screen constantly, babbling the most inane garbage until Big Brother finally has enough and starts talking back. That’s not even the best part, the best part is the last few seconds of the film. I won’t spoil it, but the movie gets better as it goes along until the final punch line.
The Second Comeback
What starts as a comment on how the message of Jesus gets lost through all the marketing and BS gets turned into a pretty hilarious comedy. It’s only about ten minutes long, so there isn’t time for the one joke to wear thin. Some of the jokes are a little too obvious, but as the whole thing is so short it’s eminently forgivable. You can watch this on youtube, it’ll take you a couple of minutes and you probably won’t regret it.
Battle of the Sexes
What really happens in women’s bathrooms? Well, this movie tries to answer that question in humorous fashion. Yes, most the shorts are comedy, but shorts are easier to do as comedies. Anyway, a woman goes into the bathroom and gets a report on a man, deciding on whether or not to continue the date with him. Yeah, similar shorts have been done before, but this one is really fun.
Well, that’s if for now. I know this was short, but if you watched all the movies it should have taken about half an hour, and that’s not a bad slice of entertainment. Maybe later I’ll get you some more shorts to enjoy. For now though, this is all I’d planned on.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Movie Review: Horatio’s Drive
Haven’t done a documentary in a little while here, so let’s watch this one. This Ken Burns movie is the tale of the first cross country automobile journey undertaken by a rich Vermont Doctor. In one way, you might like the character of Horatio Nelson Jackson, in another way you might despise him and everything he purports to stand for. Strangely, this is also a movie where only men are interviewed save for two of Nelson’s granddaughters. So it’s guys, talking about a long car ride undertaken by a couple of guys. In a way, we could say that these are rich yuppies who have an adventure talking about another rich yuppie who once had an adventure. The story is pretty good, but there are drawbacks. Is it good or bad? Let’s have a look…
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